I Recommend...

^^^

Thanks for sharing.

Can you elaborate a little please? Who are they, what style of music do they play? what albums did they release, are they currentl;y active , links to their sites, etc.

Now for something quite different from the above mentioned bands.

The band is AHVAK from Israel who have released so far their self titled album Ahvak in 2004.

Chaotic, emotional, crazy, melancholic - this is some of the array of feelings this band manages to convey in this album. As the reviews here say, tracks 3 and 7 are kind of fillers and unessential, but the others more than make up for it. Vivisection is like music to accompany you to a madman's brain. RIO/Avant-Garde at its best. The music tends to be brutal and eccentric. They know very well what they are doing and play very good, creating hunting "melodies". It is a very good debut album, IMO. As another reviewer stated, the production is very clean and he finds it emotionless. There is merit to this claim, but maybe this is what they were after.

A word of warning - It might be difficult to gt into this initially. It is not meant to be a friendly album. Rather a complex and full of emotions journey that the band members take you through.

Track listing
1. Vivisektia (8:30)
2. Bherta (8:25)
3. Regaim (2:41)
4. Ahvak (16:21)
5. Melet (2:53)
6. Hamef Ahakim (13:32)
7. Pirzool (0:58)

Total Time: 53:20

Line-up
- Yehuda Kollon / guitars
- Ishay Sommer bass
- Udi Susser / keyboards, woodwinds, vocals, baglama, darbooka
- Roy Yarkoni / keyboards, piano
- Dave Kerman / drums, percussion
- Udi Koomran / computer

Recognize any name? hint - he plays drums and percussions and was in PRESENT, THINKING PLAGUE, 5UU'S and U TOTEM.

Enjoy

Whoa! Outstanding stuff. I had no idea about the members, just liked the music. Thanks for the insight, its appreciated.

To be prduced by Steven Wilson, huh? That should work, he's done alright with PT and Opeth's stuff, I would have to say.

Got an odd one for the PA community today. This is a little known but deserving piece of work. It is progressive and original in the true sense of the words. Very avante-garde and experimental. This will not be for everyone one, however. It is dark and complex, at times almost tribal, at times a vortex of sound, often electronic, at other times sultry. Most of this stuff is out there a ways. It is very layered with some really odd time signatures.

It features an exceptional Warr guitar player. (If you are not familiar with this instrument, watch for a thread coming soon, to a forum near you!) He plays a 14 string model. Since you only touch the string to the neck on these instruments, both hands are free to play totally different things. (There is no picking.) This basically allows him to be playing an 8 string guitar and a 6 string base at the same time. He does it very well.

There are several people out there that play these types of guitars, of course. Trey Gunn plays only Warr guitars and Tony Levin has been using a stick off and on forever. But I digress. Back to what I started mumbling about 2 paragraphs ago.

The name of the band is 99 Names of god. Their website is: www.99namesofgod.com as you would expect. You can see some cheesy videos of them playing on their site. Even thought the sound and visual quality of the videos are bad, you can get an idea of what they are like there. The also have a myspace page which plays some of their music, as well. That is at www.myspace.com/99namesofgod as you would also expect.

If you are the type who really enjoys some of King Crimson's improv stuff, for example, you really ought to check this band out. It is a Warr guitar player, who also does all of the electronics and loop work, a female vocalist / keys player and a drummer on Roland V drums. They create an amazing amount of sound for a trio. It has an improv feeling to it, but it is all very carefully stuctured. They also sound exactly the same live.

The only place that I am aware of to buy their CD is at Amazon.com. Just go there and do a search for 99 names of god. The name of the CD is Interwoven. As far as I know, it is the only one they have out. It is from 2003. Rare piece of work.

Again, this is pretty unusual material. Those who dislike it are likey to stongly dislike it. For those who can get into it, it just keeps getting better with each listen for a long time.

Sorry, didn't mean to write a novel!

Hi Lesovation, good to see/read you

Taal are really great and should not be missed.

I love Yezda as well (have both their albums) and I prefer Boris to Baboon as well.

Have little time now to do a serious recommendation and I have a large list to cover. Plus, I prefer to write about an album while listening to it, so it limits the time possibilities.

Just a short one, though. Been listening to SINKADUS's two releases alot lately (Aurum Nostrum, Cirkus). While they are very good and competent, I can't escape the feeling its been done by others - the older symphonic bands and the new wave of symphonic bands (even some vintage ones like Wobbler). I will post my similar feelings about Hinterland later, since it has much to do with them as well. But for good and well performed symphonic prog music, I think they are more than worth the listen.

http://home1.swipnet.se/~w-18973/sinkadus/

Hello and Goodday/night to the PA community!

I usually don't do this and also don't encourage others to do so, but I was quite impressed at the first, second and third listens that I decided to bring to attention this band.

They are OVERHEAD and the album I am refering to is their second release from 2005 Metaepitome. It is a release combning some sympg influences in it while adding their own touch and mark to it. There are occasional song that remond more of the neo-prog bands, but in a good way. This is evidently this bands direction and inclination - A modern sound of symphonic prog that still keeps the original sounds but adds in their own ideas and thoughts of how it should sound and also adding a modern rock feel into the music. I suggest you read this review http://www.progarchives.com/Review.asp?id=38750 by Gatot Widayanto, and this one http://www.progarchives.com/Review.asp?id=62536 by Erik Neuteboom which give a very good idea on this release.  

Their first release Zumanthum is from 2002 and it is also highly rated here in PA.

You can hear samples through their website:

http://zebra.tky.hut.fi/overhead/

In the tradition of Saturday specials, I decided to dedicate this day to Van Der Graaf Generator:

The playlist includes:

Young wrote: Hey, Avestin, Wake Up! What about other suggestions? You didn't abandon the sinking ship, did you?

Sorry, not much time this week for new recomm's even though I have many things to recommend.

I still have the debt of a few posts ago, stating I will recomm another one of the two bands I really enjoy listening lately and I will take the challenge of In The Woods raised by Mr. Young.

BTW, been immersing myself lately with really good metal with prog tendencies which not many will find to be their taste but still I think some will like them if not already know them.

These bands are Neurosis, which I have already mentioned at the first post in this thread. Isis and Pelican are the other bands. Isis is already here on PA and I am not sure Pelican is or whether it will be added in the near future.

Another thing - If you feel like relaxing and listening to something soothing I suggest an album already mentioned here - Moon safari - A Doorway To Summer.

A good weekend to all the PA community!

Oh, one more thing. If you haven't done so already, you should really have a look in the excellent threads recommending prog by countries (US, Russian, Japan and Hungary as well as Belgian, French and Spain).

lesovation wrote: Opps...sorry. My bad, Avestin. I'll try to pay more attention! You do have a good thread going, by the way. I shall now attempt to redeem myself in some small part...(emphasis on the "small".) Some bands you are probably already aware on the more metal side of things... Canvus Solaris - They have three CDs out, most recently - Penumbra Diffuse (kind of Jazz Metal, a heaviier from of Gordian Knot, if you will.) Solefald - Extremely Avante-garde metal, occasional sax, layered vocals, they have four CDs out, each one very different from the others. Ephel Duath - Three out, Painter's Pallette is the one most familiar to me. They are out there a ways, kind of Acid Jazz meets Black Metal. Odd, unpredicable time changes. Very unique stuff. Farmakon - Opeth soaked in jazz (?) kind of thing. Those into metal are probably already aware of those bands, but you never know. My tastes are pretty varied. On the more straight up prog rock side of things, a few more you proabably know... Cairo - At lease 3 or 4 CDs, kind of ELP-ish in a way. Three man band, heavy keys. Under The Sun - Thier self titled CD is the only on I'm aware of. Good stuff, kind of different. Or to travel way out there... Maudlin of the Well - Who has recently changed their name to Kayo Dot - They have at least 3 or 4  CDs out there. All are very Avante-Garde, experimental works. Excellent musicianship, but highly unpredictable and all over the place. Hope one or two of those might be useful to someone out there.

Of the metal ones you mentioned I know Ephel, Farmakonand Solefald, all of which I find to be great bands. I am not familiar with Canvus Solaris, but knowing Gordian Knot, this can't be bad.

When did Cairo and Under the sun operate or are they still active?

Maudlin and Kayo dot are splendid!

Hey, Avestin, Wake Up! What about other suggestions? You didn't abandon the sinking ship, did you?

Opps...sorry. My bad, Avestin. I'll try to pay more attention! You do have a good thread going, by the way.

I shall now attempt to redeem myself in some small part...(emphasis on the "small".)

Some bands you are probably already aware on the more metal side of things...

Canvus Solaris - They have three CDs out, most recently - Penumbra Diffuse (kind of Jazz Metal, a heaviier from of Gordian Knot, if you will.)

Solefald - Extremely Avante-garde metal, occasional sax, layered vocals, they have four CDs out, each one very different from the others.

Ephel Duath - Three out, Painter's Pallette is the one most familiar to me. They are out there a ways, kind of Acid Jazz meets Black Metal. Odd, unpredicable time changes. Very unique stuff.

Farmakon - Opeth soaked in jazz (?) kind of thing.

Those into metal are probably already aware of those bands, but you never know. My tastes are pretty varied. On the more straight up prog rock side of things, a few more you proabably know...

Cairo - At lease 3 or 4 CDs, kind of ELP-ish in a way. Three man band, heavy keys.

Under The Sun - Thier self titled CD is the only on I'm aware of. Good stuff, kind of different.

Or to travel way out there...

Maudlin of the Well - Who has recently changed their name to Kayo Dot - They have at least 3 or 4  CDs out there. All are very Avante-Garde, experimental works. Excellent musicianship, but highly unpredictable and all over the place.

Hope one or two of those might be useful to someone out there.

WiguJimbo wrote: avestin wrote: BTW Jimbo, I know you don't like this band too much. I'm not saying they are geniuses but they do make very good music. It's not that they were that bad, I actually found them relatively enjoyable, but I always had this "deja vu" feeling when I listened to Storm Season (probably due to over-exposure of such music), and I thought it didn't really bring anything new to the genre. I should probably re-listen to it some day, it's been over a year since I last heard it.

Hi Tony, Nice to see/read you again.

You have a point. I think that Sacrament is their best and it is there that they try the most to explore new domains (Anamnesis, The Reach). Storm maybe sounds better and is produced in a tighter way but it is less ground breaking. However, it is still a very good album by itself and even in the WW standards (Chemical Sunset, Nightside...).

To a different matter. I've been listening to Hinterland for the last few days extensively, they have close ties to White Willow (Jacob is one of the producers and they share the same keyboardist). I was at first blinded by them but now I can find some weak points to it and I have some criticism which I will post here later.

Good day / night to the PA community